30 Second Bottom Line: Disney Studio uses a new, high tech combination of animation with live scenery to creatively dramatize how dinosaurs sought a new land after a heavenly attack on the earth, as in Deep Impact and Armageddon. The dinosaurs speak and think like humans.
Story Line: In the land of dinosaurs we learn that very small changes can create extremely large impacts. As in Africa, where even the largest animals can be prey, dinosaurs also have predators. When they are attacked and are fleeing, a dinosaur egg is unearthed from its nest. A prehistoric bird that plans on eating it, grasps the egg in its beak, but drops it as he hovers over a cliff. The egg falls into a stream and bobs its way on a journey ending on an island where there are no dinosaurs, but small monkeys called lemurs.
Yar (Ossie Davis), the elder lemur, thinks about breaking the egg before it hatches so that it is never born. But he does not. The family of lemurs plan on protecting themselves from the meat-eating dinosaur when he grows up by teaching him "To hate meat." The egg hatches and they name the tiny dinosaur Aladar (D.B. Sweeney).
He's a good natured dino who grows up (quite a bit) and does not give any thought to the fact that he is the only kind of his species, until he observes a mating ritual of the lemurs. That same night a huge meteorite lands in the ocean, which wipes out the island Aladar and Yar live on. Because Aladar's size allows him to move quickly, he is able to escape, saving Yar & his adopted family of lemurs. Unfortunately, they go to a landmass that has dinosaurs, who are not necessarily vegetarian.
Joining a migrating herd of dinosaurs, Aladar and company make a pilgrimage to their "nesting place". The route has always been long and challenging, and is now more difficult because of changes to the earth related to the meteor shower. It's also dangerous because their predators, who live along the way, have an upper hand because water and food are less plentiful for the pilgrimage. The meteor shower has brought about a change somewhat similar to a "nuclear winter".
The dinosaur leader, Kron (Samuel E. Wright), is a semi benevolent dictator, who is set in his ways. He has a clear focus of what it takes to "get to the Promised Land." Aladar is attracted to Kron's sister, Neera (Julianna Margulies), which sets up a love interest and potential conflict. Neera will have to choose to follow the advice of Aladar or Kron.
Tell Me More About It: The story is a strong one about leadership, diversity, working as a group and survival of the fittest. On the journey toward the nesting grounds the dinosaurs have limited water and Kron is willing to lose some of his herd to predators if they cannot keep up. Some don't make it and the scenes are rough as we see the killing by predators and the feeding by vultures on the remains.
The facial expressions and movements of the dinosaurs and lemurs are very life like. It took somewhere between $120-200 million to create the special effects in this film. The speaking parts are surprisingly easy to accept, as is the intelligence. Time after time major hurdles are placed before the herd that they must resolve if they are not to perish. The point is very clear that to survive, you must be creative and have the heart to "Get up after being knocked down." The mood of the film is sometimes in neutral, but mostly things are either bright and cheery or dark and threatening.
The blending of animated characters with real life landscapes around the world will endure as a new format for the 21st century. Don't be surprised if we see real life actors in this format, blended with computer generated images (CGI) to reduce the cost of filmmaking. I like the use of CGI in this film, but for movies with people rather than animation, more often than not, I think the phrase "ain't nothing like the real thing" is what we want to see.
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